(19 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cuchery, France – 17 March 2025
1. Champagne maker, David Levasseur, opening bottle
2. Levasseur drinking champagne
3. SOUNDBITE (English) David Levasseur, owner of Levasseur Champagne house:
++SOUNDBITE PARTIALLY COVERED++
“Two hundred percent (tariffs) for my business is crazy especially, you know, (I have) a few importers in the (United) States. It represents maybe 7% of my market so it could be a real disaster, honestly. I think if you lose the U.S. market it’s going to be complicated to find another market because the international atmosphere is absolutely bad, honestly. People are sad, you know what I mean? And when you’re too sad it means you don’t want to drink Champagne. I’m not sad. I’m drinking Champagne!”
4. Various of glasses and champagne bottles
5. Levasseur inside facility with wine vats and bottling machine
6. Mid of bottles
7. SOUNDBITE (French) David Levasseur, owner of Levasseur Champagne house:
++SOUNDBITE COVERED++
“There’s great uncertainty. Now, when someone speaks so loudly, I mean, 200%, it’s huge. So we’re thinking, it’s about the media buzz, might as well go strong with it. But in any case, we think there’ll be consequences.”
8. Levasseur leaving the store
9. Various aerials of vineyard
STORYLINE:
It takes more than U.S. tariff threats to stop David Levasseur from drinking Champagne in the middle of the day, but the bubbly third generation winegrower is definitely worried.
President Donald Trump last Thursday threatened a 200% tariff on European wine, Champagne and spirits if the European Union goes forward with a planned 50% tariff on American whiskey.
Wine sellers and importers said a tariff of that size would essentially shut down the European wine business in the U.S.
Levasseur and other small producers are secretly hoping the country’s richest man, Bernard Arnault, might once again convince the US president to spare France’s prized sparkling wine.
The CEO of the luxury conglomerate LVMH, that exports millions of bottles of Moet and Chandon and Veuve Clicquot across the Atlantic every year, made the trip in 2017 when Trump floated the idea of taxing French alcoholic drinks and avoided dealing Levasseur’s Champagne house a devastating blow.
Wine and spirits from the 27-nation European Union made up 17% of the total consumed in the U.S. in 2023, according to IWSR, a global data and insight provider specializing in alcohol.
Of that 17%, Italy accounted for 7% — mostly from wine – and French wine, cognac and vodka accounted for 5%.
Europe’s tax on American whiskey, which was unveiled in response to the Trump administration’s steel and aluminum tariffs, is expected to go into effect on April 1.
Trump responded Thursday in a social media post.
“If this Tariff is not removed immediately, the U.S. will shortly place a 200% Tariff on all WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER E.U. REPRESENTED COUNTRIES,” Trump wrote.
“This will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the U.S.”
Trump was incorrect about the Champagne business.
Champagne is a legally protected wine that can only come from France’s Champagne region.
But U.S. winemakers — including Trump Winery, a Virginia winery owned by the president’s son Eric Trump — do make sparkling wine.
AP Video shot by Alex Turnbull
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1 Comment
Who cares. We can make amazing wine here in America. 🤡